ABIT KV7
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ABIT, a name synonymous with innovation, quality, craftsmanship and some overclockability. ABIT was established in 1989 and has been the source of innovative products on a regular basis. ABIT is the originator of jumperless "SoftMenu" technology. ABIT is pushing forth cutting edge technology with SERILLEL™ for motherboards, and OTES™ for VGA Cards. Today we have the pleasure of reviewing an AMD based motherboard outfitted with the latest chipset architecture from VIA. The KT600 chipset is designed to support AMD Athlon XP, Athlon and Duron 400/333/266 MHz CPUs for superior performance. Let's see if the KV7 with KT600 can outperform it's predecessors the KT400 and KT400A.
KV7
Intro
ABIT, a name synonymous with innovation, quality, craftsmanship and some overclockability. ABIT was established in 1989 and has been the source of innovative products on a regular basis. ABIT is the originator of jumperless "SoftMenu" technology. ABIT is pushing forth cutting edge technology with SERILLEL™ for motherboards, and OTES™ for VGA Cards. Today we have the pleasure of reviewing an AMD based motherboard outfitted with the latest chipset architecture from VIA. The KT600 chipset is designed to support AMD Athlon XP, Athlon and Duron 400/333/266 MHz CPUs for superior performance. Let's see if the KV7 with KT600 can outperform it's predecessors the KT400 and KT400A.
Packaging
(click to enlarge)
The ABIT motherboard box is almost sedate in it's design with no flashy colors or outrageous packaging tricks to opening the box. Once the box is opened you find all the accessories in two trays with the motherboard resting underneath in it's anti-static bag.
An inventory of the accessories finds a quick installation manual, a full user's manual, a Serial ATA driver disk, a CD-Rom with motherboard drivers and other software, the I/O backplate, one floppy cable, one EIDE cable, one rear panel bracket with two USB v2.0 ports, a sticker for the inside of the PC case showing all the relevant jumper locations, and finally and most importantly, two serial ATA data cables and one 4 pin molex adapter with two serial ATA power connectors. Most motherboard manufacturers today are only issuing one serial ATA data cable even if they populate the motherboard with two serial ATA connectors. Kudos to ABIT for giving you enough cables to utilize the capabilities of the motherboard without added expense to the consumer. Normally I would rant a little that no rounded cables were provided, but one for one on the serial ATA cables is satisfaction enough. (Now I just have to get the cash together to pick up two serial ATA HD drives)
Specifications
Here are the KV-7's specs and features, shamelessly borrowed directly from ABIT's website:
 Processor
- Supports AMD-K7 Athlon/AthlonXP/Barton FSB 200/266/333/400MHz Processors
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Chipset
- VIA KT600 / VT8237 chipset
- Supports Hi-Speed Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0)
- Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
- Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP 8X /4X (0.8V /1.5V)
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Memory
- Three 184-pin DIMM sockets
- Supports 2 DIMM Un-buffered DDR 333/400 (Max. 2GB)
- Supports 3 DIMM Un-buffered DDR 266 (Max. 3GB)
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SB SATA 150
- SB supports 2 ports SATA 150 RAID 0/1
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LAN
- On board 10/100Mb LAN
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Audio
- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports optical S/P DIF Out
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Internal I/O Connectors
- 1 x AGP, 5 x PCI slots
- Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB
- 2 x Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 Connectors
- 2 x SATA 150 RAID Connectors
- 2 x USB headers, 1 x CD-IN, 1 x AUX-IN
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Back Panel I/O
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
- 1 x Serial, 1 x Parallel
- Audio connectors (Front Speaker, Line-in, Mic-in, Center/Sub, Surround Speaker, S/P DIF Output)
- 4 x USB, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector
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Features |
ABIT Engineered Technology
- SoftMenu™ Technology to set CPU parameters
- ABIT FanEQ™ Technology
- ABIT MaxFID™ Technology
- CPU ThermalGuard™ Technology
- TweakGuard™ Technology
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ABIT FlashMenu™ - A Windows based BIOS flash utility. No need to boot to DOS. - BIOS updates can be done automatically through Windows. - This feature must be downloaded directly from the ABIT support website.
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ABIT FanEQ™ Control your CPU Fan Speed with the easy to use ABIT FanEQ™ interface.
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ABIT MaxFID™ Only ABIT offers a 5 BIT FID in the BIOS, versus the standard 4 BIT. The result is more overclocking options for the Higher overclocks on the FSB and greater system stability.
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ABIT ThermalGuard™ ABIT CPU ThermalGuard (Hardware Thermal Protection)ThermalGuard technology automatically shuts down your system when the CPU temperature reaches a certain threshold .
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ABIT TweakGuard™ A feature within SoftMenu that automatically resets BIOS when a failed Overclock shuts down your system.
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ABIT SoftMenu™ Overclocking
The overclocking functions include CPU frequency, Vcore, multiplier and memory voltage adjustment to maximize your system performance.
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6-Channel Audio and S/PDIF Out interface
Lets you enjoy 6-channel audio without having to buy advanced sound cards.
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USB 2.0 Support
Supports speeds up to 480 Mb/sec, approximately forty times faster than conventional USB 1.1
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Serial ATA 150MB/s data transfer rate
Serial ATA is an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA storage interface. This new high-speed interface boosts data transfer rates to up to 150 MB/sec. More flexible power tolerances allow for smaller and more efficient cables.
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DDR 400 Module Support with Enhanced 400MHz FSB
Supports up to 2GB of Single/Dual channel DIMM modules, delivering bandwidth of 4.8GB/sec. The 400MHz FSB increases bandwidth and improves overall system performance.
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Miscellaneous
- ATX form factor - Hardware Monitoring - Including Fan speed, Voltages, CPU & System temperature |
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